Newspapers are conventionally folded, stacked, and displayed for sale, in a newspaper stand having a door, which when opened, provides free access to all of the papers in the newspaper stand.
Frequently, although an individual will deposit only enough money to purchase one newspaper, several newspapers will be removed from the stack and thus, the newspaper distributors incur substantial losses. Newspapers and magazines are sometimes rolled into a cylindrical shape and then banded via a cylindrical protective sheath, such as paper or the like.
Article dispensing or vending devices have been provided heretofore such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,442,025 granted to Harvey J. Smith on May 25, 1948; U.S. Pat. No. 3,368,714 granted to W. J. Wingate, et al on Feb. 13, 1968; U.S. Pat. No. 2,562,015 granted to L. J. C. Cattanach on July 24, 1951; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,700 granted to Camp, et al on Feb. 17, 1976. The prior art article dispensers dispense articles which consistently have the same diameter. In the newspaper and magazine industry, it is rather common that the number of pages, and thus the overall diameter of the rolled newspapers and magazines, vary with each publication. It is quite common, for example, that the Sunday edition of many newspapers has substantially more pages than do the editions published during the week.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide new and novel apparatus for individually dispensing cylindrical articles, such as a rolled newspaper and the like, and thus, minimize loss due to theft.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a coin operated vending machine of the type described which can be easily bulk loaded and unloaded.
It is another object of the present invention to provide article dispensing apparatus which can be adjusted to individually receive and dispense successive cylindrical articles having differing diameters.
A further object of the present invention is to provide apparatus for individually dispensing rolled papers, and the like, including a gravity feed magazine which receives and stores a plurality of vertically disposed rolled papers, a gate, adjacent the magazine, which can be opened and closed to selectively permit the lowermost rolled paper in the magazine to fall by gravity, and a device for interrupting the passage of the rolled papers trailing the lowermost rolled paper when the gate is open, but permitting the downward passage of trailing rolled papers toward the gate when the gate is closed.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide article dispensing apparatus for dispensing rolled articles, such as newspapers and the like, including new and novel divider mechanism for separating the lowermost article from a column of rolled articles.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide article dispensing apparatus of the type described including a plurality of superposed, vertically inclined, rolled paper supporting racks, a generally vertically disposed chute for receiving the cylindrical articles from the racks and downwardly passing the articles in a column, and mechanism for adjusting the transverse width of the chute to accommodate articles having differing diameters.
Another object of the present invention is to provide article dispensing apparatus for dispensing generally cylindrical articles, such as rolled newspapers and the like, including a plurality of superposed, vertically inclined racks, generally vertical, guide members adjacent the lower ends of the racks which cooperate with the racks to define a vertically disposed, article receiving chute; apparatus for individually releasing the articles from the lower end of the chute; and mechanism mounting the guide members and the racks for relative movement toward and away from each other to adjust the width of the chute.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art as the description thereof proceeds.